The Hilltoppers took the short walk to Kent Place Blvd. to take on their city rivals the Dragons of Kent Place looking to bounce back from the Roselle Park loss the day before. Despite another valiant effort against a top team in the conference, SHS could not close out the match with a lead again and dropped a 14-25, 25-21, 25-23 decision to the Dragons.
In game 1, Summit missed 4 of its first 6 serves, passing was not solid (1.65 pass rating) and the offense could not make up the ground lost on those errors and the team dropped game 1 25-14. Summit served at an abysmal 60% and had only 2 aces. The offense only mustered 6 kills led by Val Guzman´s 3 with a .200 hitting efficiency. The silver lining was that despite all the errors, the team was in the match for most of game 1 and were winning the rallies.
Game 2 proved to be a much better display of Hilltopper volleyball as the team stayed close to KP throughout the game and despite trailing by 2-3 points most of the way a late 9-2 run by the Hilltoppers helped the team quiet the Dragon fans with a 25-21 game 2 win. Jocelyn Mendez helped straighten out the offense with a 2.66 pass rating and the team only gave up 3 aces to the Dragons while only committing 2 serving errors themselves. A serving percentage of 92% was the key factor in the win as Kent Place had 8 missed serves which proved to be decisive in a game where Summit only had 5 kills (Casey Nardino with 3 and a .200 hitting efficiency) and hit a -.042 for the game!
Summit seemed re-energized by the the late game 2 heroics and thanks to Gabby Mejia´s serving to open game 3, the team jumped out to a 5-0 lead. Summit fought off numerous runs at them by the Dragons but never allowed Kent Place to get closer than 2 points throughout. Summit seemed to respond with a key kill or dig at those points and push the lead back to 4 or 5 snuffing out any Kent Place run. But then SHS hit 20 points with a 20-17 lead.
As has been much of the pattern throughout this year, the Maroon and White could not deal with the success it had created despite coming off a time-out and extending the lead to 21-19 and stopping the Dragons on their serve to give Jocelyn Mendez the ball. Mendez hit for an ace and helped keep the Dragons out of system on the next play to give Summit what looked like a commanding lead at 23-19. The Hilltoppers though hit 4 of their 9 attack errors in the game during this stretch and allowed KP to go on a 6-0 run which sealed the game and match 25-23 for the Dragons.
Summit mustered only 3 kills in the game, a major factor in the loss, and hit for a season low -.222 on offense but were in the position to win thanks to 8 aces and an 88% serving percentage. Jocelyn Mendez passed at a consistent 2.00 rating to give the offense multiple chances to score and combined with Mejia and Nardino for a perfect 17/17 from the service line with a combined 8 aces (4 Mejia). Mendez was a defensive stalwart digging up a team leading 6 balls in the game 3 loss.
Mendez passed for a great 2.00 rating for the match and led the team with 13 digs. Mendez also put down 2 aces in a perfect 10/10 serving performance. Nardino was once again the top point scorer with 10 points behind 5 kills, 4 aces and 1 block while also chipping in with 2 digs. Guzman was the only hitter on the positive side for the Hilltoppers with a .100 hitting efficiency behind 4 kills while also digging up 5 balls.
But the woman of the match was Mejia who, despite sustaining a minor finger injury in game 1, contributed 5 points to the scoring with 5 aces and an outstanding 14/15 serving performance. Mejia was also highly active defensively with 5 digs and saved numerous errant passes that led to momentum changing plays for the Hilltoppers throughout game 2 and 3.
JV ROLLS TO 10TH VICTORY
The JV Hilltoppers were absolutely dominant in their 25-15, 25-12 victory over the Dragons. Summit won through a total team effort as multiple Hilltoppers contributed to the lopsided win. In game 1, SHS ripped a season high 13 kills and hit for 5 aces to overwhelm the Dragon defense.
Game 2 proved to be more of the same as the Maroon and White pounded out a season high 13 aces to go with 6 kills against Kent Place who had no answers for the Summit offense.
Olivia Elko tacked on 6 more aces as she continues her assault on the JV record of 59 aces in a season and added a kill and 3 digs. Camille Della Piazza added 4 aces, 3 kills, 3 assists and 1 dig to be the most active Hilltopper on the day. Cheryl Liu was lethal from the service line as well ripping 6 aces while also adding 2 digs. Offensively, Carmel Barsh led the way with 5 kills along with Katie McPhearson who also nailed 5 kills.
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